Calif. cops capture mountain lion loose in housing complex

After a nearly five-hour standoff with a mountain lion, wardens ended up trapping and tranquilizing the big cat

By Terry McSweeney, Bob Redell, and Lisa Fernandez
NBC Bay Area

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — After a nearly five-hour standoff with a mountain lion in Mountain View on Tuesday night, wardens ended up trapping and tranquilizing the big cat inside the parking garage of a typically quiet Silicon Valley apartment complex.

For hours, police, wardens and residents surrounded the garage of a building in the 2000 block of California Street. The scene was tense, like a "standoff," said Mountain View Police Capt. Chris Hsiung, referring to the cat cowering underneath a car in the apartment garage as everyone looked on.

After all the commotion, the 2-year-old male was set free on the Peninsula just before midnight, Fish and Game Lt. Andrew Hughan said.